Monday, March 15, 2004

Interview with Martin Van Creveld (in early 2002)on the Arab-Israeli conflict and asymmetrical wars: The same thing has happened to the Israeli army as happened to all the rest that have tried over the last sixty years. Basically it’s always a question of the relationship of forces. If you are strong, and you are fighting the weak for any period of time, you are going to become weak yourself. There is one thing that can be done – and that is to put and end to the situation whereby we are the strong fighting the weak, because that is the most stupid situation in which anybody can be.... You do that by A, waiting for a suitable opportunity... B, doing whatever it takes to restore the balance of power between us and the Palestinians... C, removing 90% of the causes of the conflict, by pulling out... and D, building a wall between us and the other side, so tall that even the birds cannot fly over it.... so as to avoid any kind of friction for a long long time in the future. 3:54:22 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Reuters:  Spain's incoming leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero indicated Monday he would pull Madrid's troops out of the "disastrous" occupation of Iraq in a major swing from his predecessor's pro-American foreign policy. 1:19:57 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

Pretty funny: Ahmed Abdel Razzaq went to Iraq to fight the Americans and die a martyr. He ended up in a US prison camp after the Iraqis he went to defend captured and sold him for $100. “I went to jihad (holy war) for the Iraqis but they are all traitors; the people, the army, the Kurds. They say Saddam was bad, but the Iraqis deserve 10 Saddams.” 10:33:13 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Finally, weblogs, RSS, and P2P have been combined.  This has been a dream of mine since I turned up in the Weblog world in early 2001 (and right in line with the vision in a Forrester report I wrote 1996 entitled:  Personal Broadcast Networks).  Thanks Andrew!  This is excellent. 8:41:53 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Question: Do you think your country can keep you safe from terrorists?  Voters in Spain answered this question on Sunday.  Many said no.  They are not alone.  Many people in the US and other parts of Europe reading this think the same thing.  This reaction is key to understanding what is going wrong globally.  The nation-state is in decline.  It has failed in its most basic task:  to provide for the safety of its citizens.  It has lost its monopoly on violence.  It is losing its control over its economy (a quick glimpse at the US trade deficit is a case in point).  Increases in globalization and new technology exacerbates this process of decline. The consequences of the delegitimization of the nation-state will be central to life in the next century. 8:17:57 AM    Comment_ Trackback []